Passion for coding have been rising steeply over the last few years. The search term (Learn Coding) on Google started growing in 2012 and is still surging.

It has been over a year that I have been planning to start learning to code but I was afraid whether it’s my cup of tea or not. Being of a Marketing and finance background, I was confused whether to start or not. This confusion was leading to stress so the only way to avoid stress is to just take ‘action’ and do it NOW!

Just starting out from scratch, I did it from HTML and CSS and believe me, the instructors are so good that I began editing my theme HTML and CSS files in the first week itself. It really feels so good when I don’t need to pay extra bucks to developers to design my site.

Last week I completed HTML and CSS and it still needs a lot of practice. These days I am focusing on full stack JavaScript and it’s going on with full energy.

Though it gets demotivating while learning but if we overcome it, it feels great at the end of the day.

Let’s learn a more about Treehouse and see whether it’s for you or not.

About Treehouse

Treehouse is a web-based training website that delivers informative web-design, web-development, and app-development courses by experienced and well-trained teachers. Currently, it has over 220 courses and over 180000 students getting job ready within months by learning at their pace.

Treehouse was founded by Ryan Carson in 2011 with the main motive of delivering beginners to advanced training on Web Design, web development, app development and digital literacy. But now treehouse is much more than that, there are also various courses on learning spreadsheets, big data, logo designing, etc. which are very much essential topics to know during the interview.

Why I recommend Treehouse? What’s so special about it?

What’s the need to spend your bucks when all the information is available online for free on Codeacademy, Khan Academy etc.?

There is one term known as ‘information overload’. I agree that there’s a lot of information available online and for free but I have personally dealt with information overload issue which leads to analysis paralysis and I end up doing nothing. This is because there are a lot of options and we don’t know where to start from.

If you don’t want to deal with analysis paralysis, Treehouse is for you. It has tracks feature that divides the videos in various tracks to help you start from scratch, analyze your performance and be happy at the end of the day because you really learned something valuable.

Another great part of Treehouse is that it comes with a live workspace which helps you stay active while watching the videos. What I do is that I divide my screen into two halves and practice while watching the videos. Watching videos solely WON’T HELP.

Remember those days when we use to sleep in class while the teacher was giving a lecture? Treehouse is not that boring, for sure.

It comes with challenging quizzes and questions in between the videos of a particular course to test you.

Here is what kind of teaching style you can expect after joining Treehouse!

Can you learn to code for free on Treehouse?

You can take a free trial on Treehouse if you want to check whether coding is your cup of tea or not or if you want to dive into its features. Treehouse comes with two plans: Basic and Pro.

Basic plan costs you $25/month which gives you access to all videos except the conferences but you won’t be able to download the videos while the pro plans cost $49/month which gives you access to ALL videos and you can download the videos and watch them offline as well.

You can start with a week trial and then decide whether you would like to continue or not.

Treehouse vs Udemy: Why I prefer Treehouse over Udemy?

Firstly, Udemy covers a lot of other topics besides coding but Treehouse specializes in delivering just coding and related courses.

Udemy is great when you want to dive into a particular topic in coding. For example, if you want to learn Python only while with Treehouse you can start from scratch and track your performance from beginners to advanced level in any topic in coding.

There’s a lot of difference in teaching by an experienced professional and by the one who is still learning. Treehouse accepts applications of profile based experienced instructors so you can make sure that you are into safe hands.

There are also a lot of pricing differences between Treehouse and Udemy.

As told earlier Udemy is good if you want to go for just a particular course and want to learn something different. But if you want to learn PHP, it’s good to start with HTML, CSS and Javascript basics. In this case, Udemy will cost you a lot for individual courses while Treehouse gives you access to all videos for a reasonable payment. ($25/month for basic plan and $49/month for pro plan).

Current Treehouse Coding Library

Treehouse covers a lot of topics but here are the most viewed and recommended topics.

Android

APIs

C#

HTML

PHP

Databases

Data Analysis

Design

Game Development

Go

iOS

Java

Business

Javascript

PHP

Python

Ruby

WordPress

Virtual Reality

Digital Literacy

CSS

Will you be job ready in months as Treehouse says?

It really depends. It has been over 2 months I have been learning and coding at Treehouse but still, I need practice and I know I won’t be able to crack interviews. It really depends on how much time you are devoting and how much passionate you are about coding and what is the purpose of yours by learning to code.

It also depends on what background do you have. If you are learning to code from scratch, it will definitely take time initially but you will experience an exponential growth in later months.

If you are devoting the whole day to coding, then I must say yes!

But you are devoting just 1-2 hours a day, you will take time. The key is to be consistent and practice a little every day and this is what I do.

Also, Treehouse has a Techdegree program which lets you master in a particular skill and apply for a job for that profile. The Techdegree costs $199/month and you should only take if you are serious about building your career for that particular profile. The degrees include Front-end web development, Full stack javascript, Java web development, etc.

A lot of companies like WordPress and BankSimple consider your Treehouse badges in your profile to hire for certain profiles. So yes, there are a lot of opportunities here at a very low investment.

Treehouse cons that you should know

I have shared a lot of good things about Treehouse that it has reasonable pricing, great instructors, great quizzes and multiple courses beyond coding etc. but where are the cons?

Every business has cons, right?

Based on my personal experience, below are some cons of Treehouse:

Not good for advanced learners – Should go for Udemy instead

Challenges are easy to motivate us but the reality is different. Need to work a lot on live projects to learn

Now, if you ask me is it worth the money, I would say again, It depends!

Treehouse Success Stories

Am I an affiliate of Treehouse?

Yes, I am an affiliate of Treehouse. I would get a small commission if you join Treehouse with no extra cost for you. Though my recommendation is nowhere biased due to the commissions as I am personally a student of Treehouse. The commissions I get help me run this blog.

I completely agree with the above honest review and it’s happening these days. But this review is completely based on my personal opinion and you need to spend your hard-earned money wisely.

Do you have Treehouse Discount Code?

Treehouse doesn’t offer any coupon codes. You can get a free trial of Treehouse and 50% OFF on basic plan from the following link.

Conclusion

If you are just starting out to code, like me, you’re doing a great job. It doesn’t matter much from you are learning but if you are looking for my suggestion, I would recommend Treehouse. It’s a boon for me.

I don’t like just watching and watching videos whole day because at the end of the day if I ask myself what have I learned, I know nothing. So, I need practice which I do on Treehouse besides watching the videos.

It really doesn’t matter the field you are currently in. I have a background in marketing and finance and recently passed Level 2 CFA exam but I have taken a step to learn to code. I have already completed HTML5 and CSS3 and is about to finish Javascript.